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1912 - Sydney Morning Herald

The southeastern tip of New South Wales, near Bombala, N.S.W. and the Victoria state line, has long been the stamping grounds of the yowie, Australia's hair-covered hominid.

Indeed, the Bombala area is much like the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla, Washington state, USA, with its many, many reports of Bigfoot sightings.

One of the earliest reported yowie sightings took place on October 12, 1912 when George Summerell, riding on horseback along a trail, spotted a creature on all fours drinking from a small stream.

Summerell's first thought was, What an immense kangaroo!

"But, on hearing the horse's feet on the track, it (the creature) rose to its full height, of about seven feet, and looked quietly at the horsemen. Then, stooping down again, it finished its drink, and then, picking up a stick that lay by it, walked steadily away up the slope to the right, or eastern side of the road, and disappeared among the rocks and timber 150 yards away."

"Summerell described the face as being like that of an ape or man, minus forehead and chin, with a great trunk all one size from shoulders to hips and with arms that nearly reached to its ankles." Summerell rode to the nearest town and brought back several people to view the scene of the encounter.

They found "about a score of footprints (that) attested to the truth of Summerell's account, the handprints where the animal had stooped at the edge of the water being especially plain. These handprints differed from a large human hand chiefly in having the little fingers set much like the thumbs."

"A striking peculiarity was revealed, however, in the handprints; these, resembling an enormously long and ugly human foot in the heel, instep and ball, had only four toes--long (nearly five inches), cylindrical, and showing evidence of extreme flexibility. Even in the prints which had sunk deepest into the mud, there was no trace of the 'thumb' of the characteristic ape's 'foot.'"

"Beside perhaps a score of new prints, there were old ones discernible, showing that the animal had crossed the creek at least a fortnight previously."